Toxin Exposure

Hal Mangold (hmangold@muselab.ac.runet.edu)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
These rules were originally design to simulate the pollution of the cities
of 2053, but work equally well for toxic waste, and radiation exposure as
well. For as much emphasis as the SR game puts on how screwed the
environment is there need to be a few more concrete consequences of this. To
wit, these rules

EXPOSURE

Toxic environments are a fairly common feature to the SII world, whether
they be the East Anglian Stinkfens, or just the average suffocating
pollution of Seattle. The consequences for those exposed to these substances
can be severe, especially if a allergy is present.

To simulate these effects in areas of variable exposure, first rate the
level of toxic exposure from 1-4. A rating 1 area would be a city on an
average day, while rating 4 would be a huge chemical dumping ground, just
oozing toxins.

This rating is not treated as a normal rating for damage purposes. Instead
the rating equals the number of dice rolled to determine the power number of
a toxic attack.

Example:

The Austin Biotech Waste Processing and Disposal Facility (read "big hole in
the ground") has a Toxic rating of 3. This means that the Power of a toxic
attack can vary anywhere from 3 to 18.

This variable Powered attack represents the shifting winds, etc., all the
factors that are variable around a toxic site.

The Wound Level of a toxic attack is also determined by the Rating, as
follows:

Rating          Wound Level
1                L(stun)
2                M(stun)
3                S(stun)
4                D(stun)

"Aha!" you cry. "Its only stun damage, and I have a trauma damper."

Yeah, well then you're safe until you hit the physical overflow point. After
stun damage gets to Deadly, it starts overflowing onto the physical chart.
Additionally this damage does not heal until the person is no longer exposed
to the toxic environment. Magical Healing is an exception, of course. Keep
in mind, though, that a piece of land so blighted as to be toxic will
probably have a background count, so all you mages, don't get cocky.

As a rule of thumb, make checks every two hours or so, although particularly
deadly environments may require checks every hour, or even 1/2 hour. Another
tactic for really toxic environments is to make the damage physical to begin
with (i.e. corrosives in the air etc), instead of stun.

Now this is for areas that have a fluctuating toxic level. In an area of
constant exposure things are easier. Just set the Power and Wound Level at
fixed numbers and require a check every so often (see above).

Keep in mind that any PC with a pollutant allergy should have to deal with
that on top of these effects.

PROTECTION

Protection against toxic exposure can be worn, but the protection must be
appropriate for the type. Exposure can be divide up into inhaled, insulated
and radioactive types.

Proper protection for inhaled toxins is a filter mask or similar
cyberware/bioware. The masks are very common on the streets of polluted
cities like LA, New York, And Seattle.

Insulasted protection comes in the form of sealed suits (like todays EPA
workers wear).

Radioactivity can only be screened by a radiation suit.

All of these protective forms can be bought in varying ratings. The rating
of the protective device is subtracted from the Power of the toxic attack,
like armor in fire combat. Unlike fire combat, if the Power of the toxic
attack is reduced to 0, no check is needed.

HOW IT ALL COMES TOGETHER

Brutus the Samurai is on the run, and stumbles upon a toxic dump area. The
dump gives off airborne toxic vapors with a rating of 2, and Brutus is
wearing a rating 5 filter mask. The GM rolls 2 dice and gets a result of 11.
Since the rating for the site is 2, the initial Wound Level will be M(stun).
The toxic attack will be at 11M(stun), and Brutus will get to treat his
rating 5 mask as 5 points of "armor", making the final attack 6M(stun). Keep
in mind that if the toxins had been insinuative instead of inhaled, Brutus'
mask would have been useless. Furthermore, the longer Brutus stays in this
environment, the more checks he will have to make.